'"
"Well, at this hour, Otty, I won't dwell on my contribution to the
evening's pleasure. Besides, it was nothing to boast of. I was a
member of the Oxford Alpine Club, you know: and the water-pipe
offered no difficulties. The stucco was in poor condition--I should
say that it hardens more easily in Byzantium--but for difficulty
there was nothing comparable with New College Chapel, or the friable
masonry and the dome of the Radcliffe.
"I let myself down through a skylight into the bowels of the place:
found, with the help of matches, the operating box and the gallery,
switched on the lights, and shinned down a pillar to the stalls.
After that, to open the Emergency Exit and admit my audience was what
the detective stories call the work of a moment. I re-closed the
door carefully, and climbed back to manipulate the lantern.
"I had helped to work one of these shows once, at a Sunday School
treat--or a Primrose Fete--forget which--down in the country.
It's quite simple when you have the hang of it. . . . I made a mull
with the first reel: got it upside down; and Petunia, from somewhere
deep under the gallery, called up 'Gar'n!' It was a Panorama of
Pekin, anyway, and dull enough whichever way you took it.
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